Wednesday

Pretty crazy wild weather day yesterday. I know that we on average in Oregon get a couple of tornadoes a year but wow. The one that hit Aumsville yesterday was a doozy. The air temperature alone has been really higher then normal I think for the last week or so. I tend to wear shorts given a choice even in the winter time but I often have a long sleeve shirt on or a light jacket over it but Monday I was out doing some things and I just had on a t-shirt and shorts. Even for me that is a bit extreme in December but I wasn't uncomfortable at all.

I did read an interesting thing this morning. I do not know if all of my readers, or any for that matter, will remember this but right after President Obama was elected there was a huge rush on handguns in America. You couldn't turn on the television or radio or read a political blog without someone talking about the shortage of both guns and ammunition. Well it seems that times have changed again. The ammunition shortage is over there seems to be plenty of that to go around. Also Obama has made no significant moves to control or outlaw guns. Because of that along with some other things both societal and economically related. A large amount the guns purchased in the post election surge are being resold in the used market or private person to person sales. In fact gun manufactures Smith & Wesson actually posted a loss this last quarter. I am not sure what it all means other then that I think that people are not running as scared as they used to be running. They seem to be scared about other things but not about guns being taken away or ammunition being outlawed.

I think the people that actually benefited from this whole thing was the National Rifle Association (NRA). The annual revenue for the NRA is around $250 Million. Which is fine people can give money to who they see fit. I just find it interesting that what drives such giving is pure abject fear. I know that we try to rise above the emotional and like to think that we are rational beings but in our core the reptile brain freaks out and pushes us to do things that are emotionally based and may not be in our best interests. I find that fascinating.